


Loaded Dice

by Unicoranglais



Category: Return of the Obra Dinn (Video Game), Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Ghost Hunting, Ghosts, M/M, Undead Crew - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:48:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26630875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unicoranglais/pseuds/Unicoranglais
Summary: Ryou has been dreaming lately, of a great ghost ship, tossing and turning in eternal unrest. She calls him, begs for her mysteries to be solved and her crew put to rest.(In which Ryou and Kajiki explore the good ship Obra Dinn, and, perhaps, escape its Very No Good ghost crew.)
Relationships: Kajiki Ryouta | Mako Tsunami/Bakura Ryou
Kudos: 5





	1. Prologue: The Calling

“You’re almost here,” he whispered. “Almost. Just a little further.”

Growls and groans shook the air, threatening to part the grey clouds. For weeks now, this same dream had kept him going to bed early, waking at one in the morning to make as many unhelpful notes as he could, but _this_ time – yes, this time. It had to be, with such a racket. Ryou kept his gaze steady on the sounds, and held his Ring close against his chest. It felt warm in his hand, thrumming with the noise of the Whatever It Was.

A ghost? Certainly, but Ryou wasn’t quite sure it was sentient. The groaning was most like wood creaking and protesting under the weight of… something; the growling like the struggle of something huge against something even more so. A dragon, maybe. He could be dealing with a Duel Monster here.

Still, it was worth an attempt at contact. Perhaps it was a plane, given all this cloud and sky. Ryou couldn’t even see his shoes in this strange dreamscape. A helicopter, maybe a blimp; either way, full of innocents worth helping. Or maybe it was a dragon after all, but one of the nice, talking ones that wouldn’t try to eat him.

 _Come out, please._ He took a deep breath, but his voice came out very small, ripped away by the howl of wind and scream of oncoming beast. So he tried, again, and tried to sound more confident about it: “Show yourself-?”

His voice went up at the end, but it worked regardless. A light pierced the stormy sky, and for a moment, he saw it fully. Not a dragon, not a plane, but a giant ship. Old, maybe nineteenth century. Two masts, the ragged sail half unfurled, men crouched like crows in their heights.

A sailor hung in the air, his body suspended. Impaled, on that singular bolt of light.

Pain in his eyes. Ryou woke up, and found his Ring was glowing as brightly as the lightning. One golden point had raised itself, pointing like the needle of a compass straight towards Ryou’s window. Not that he really needed that warning, because not even his very nice silver-starred curtains could fully hide the immense light blazing in.

Gone in seconds, of course. Ghosts weren’t much for sticking around. But in those few seconds he’d lurched from bed and, well, there it was, a dark silhouette in the middle of this great bolt that turned the water almost solid white. A great ship, one that almost certainly didn’t belong, drifting west - on a fell course for Domino Bay.

The Millennium Ring thrummed in a kind of muffled scream, and Ryou’s heart leapt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiya, readers. 
> 
> This fic was originally a oneshot, but became longer and longer until I had to start trying to divide it into chapters. For now, I've cut it up roughly where it seems to make sense, creating four chapters and a prologue, but I do intend to go back and add more final endings and beginnings to each chapter.
> 
> Just like all my other Obra Dinn fics, this story will have a great many spoilers for Obra Dinn, so if you haven't played it and intend on playing it, feel free to come back once you've played.


	2. Chapter One

Finally, the lock came loose. They walked down Domino Pier, stars above and water lapping below. For breaking and entering at midnight, it was a weirdly romantic experience – quiet enough that you could hear the sound of the sea, and the lights of boats moored out in the bay danced on the glassy surface.

“So it’s a boat, right?” Kajiki’s stride was surely about twice Ryou’s, but he walked at Ryou’s side anyway, two planks tucked under one arm. His harpoon was slung over his back ‘just in case’, though Ryou highly doubted he’d be able to hit ghosts, much less see them without the aid of a Millennium Item. Or hear them, for that matter. After all, Ryou could only hear them without the Ring himself because he’d spent so much time _with_ the Ring; the scars were in his chest for all to see.

Well, not that anyone saw them. Ryou was always a stickler for buttoning his shirts up to the collar.

“Yes, an old boat.” Ryou tried not to let his breath catch too hard in his throat. “I saw it in a dream.”

“Hm. Well, anything for one of Yugi’s friends… Especially if I get to call it a… y’know. Especially if it’s with you.”

Kajiki coughed. It was hard to see much of his expression in the dark, but the rise and fall of his chest was steady enough, and he held Ryou’s hand firmly. It was all Ryou could do not to pull away and apologize profusely, but no – the ghost ship would be worth a little lie. He’d smooth things over with Kajiki later.

The silence seemed to weigh on Kajiki’s shoulders. Before long, he began to babble again, almost tripping over himself in his haste to get his own words out of the way. “You know, I, I just wanted to add to that – about the date, I do have feelings. I’m a sensitive guy, and if you wanted to do another date after, well, not that we’ve started this one, but, crushes, and I was just…”

He stopped, trailing off, and Ryou could feel him tense just a little, his grip a little tighter. Had he realized from the silence alone-? “Hey, _was_ that gate eight? Ya know reading’s not my strong point.”

Only just now asking that, with the gate far behind them? Classic Kajiki. Ryou laughed, nervous. “Well, I _think_ so. I only saw it fly in here. You’re the one who knows the gates, that’s why I called you.”

He squeezed Kajiki’s hand, just a little. That felt good, which in turn made him feel terrible about leading the guy on. Just a little lie, a lie built around a grain of truth, but a skyscraper of a lie that filled Ryou’s mind, top to bottom. It felt so massive, it nearly forced Ryou’s mouth open and made him tell-

No.

He squeezed harder. Kajiki responded to it, got his fingers around Ryou’s wrist and- ooh, that was going to hurt in the morning. He pulled away, laughing as nervously as Ryou had. “Sorry! It’s just the silence. I… don’t know what to say, other than thanks-”

Ryou saw an opportunity, and seized it with his remaining uninjured hand, grabbing Kajiki’s all over again. “Thanks for getting me in here. I know it’s sudden, but I really… wanted to make sure. That the ship’s not there.”

Just do a disappearing act; worked on all Yugi’s friends. Why not Kajiki? Just play the same role as always. Follow the story, no need to be wasting time on ideas of lies and truths. He swallowed, and nodded. “Right, I just want to make sure.”

“Not a problem!” Kajiki boomed, completely ruining that whole quiet and romantic thing. “And as I was saying, thanks for dating me! I really appreciate the trial!”

Definitely not what he was babbling on about before, but sure. Ryou refrained from rolling his eyes. “Oh, not a problem. I… really hope we enjoy this.”

Ryou suspected they would, or at least _he_ would. Hopefully Kajiki wouldn’t get all heartbroken about being used to break into a shipyard. But you could never really be certain with these things - especially not when it came to flying boats and ghost ships. 

“Enough mushy stuff, let’s find the boat!” Kajiki threw back his head and laughed loudly, like he had made some sort of joke. He only stopped when Ryou laughed along, and tried to ignore how small and feeble his own giggles were. “And if it’s all old-timey like you said, it’ll be easy enough to spot- there!”

Dropping Ryou’s hand, the fisherman darted down the dock and came to a halt at the side of…

Oh, _wow._

It was even more magnificent than Ryou could have imagined, let alone dreamed. The silhouette he had seen earlier had smoothed out every crack in her hull, erased the million lines of the rigging. She was a beast in mahogany; the sails were all taken down, but the rigging remained like a great spiderweb sprawled high over its deck, ready to snare some sort of giant bird.

“Gimme your torch,” Kajiki said, his voice almost cracking with excitement. “This isn’t a replica, it looks like the _real deal._ Though I guess that’s how replicas are supposed to look, right?”

 _Shit,_ Ryou thought. _He’s really found it._

“Great,” Ryou said, passing the torch over. “You really found it!”

“Sure did,” Kajiki grinned back. Jeez, how had he even seen it? Weren’t ghost ships supposed to be, well, ghost? As in invisible to all but people like Ryou?

Then again, it was a giant ship. Hard to miss even if it had tried to be invisible. Maybe it _had_ tried, and just missed so badly that it hadn’t invisible-d at all.

They stood there together, and Kajiki grabbed his hand again, and Ryou didn’t even complain about it; too busy admiring how the sea danced under new light. The giant ship sat high in the water like it weighed nothing at all, her keel barely touching the surface; maybe that’s why he had mistaken her for flying.

Maybe not. There had been clouds, after all.

Before Ryou could think about this too hard, something sparkled, something flickered, high in the rigging and low behind the abandoned boxes on the deck. Something was out there, in the blink of an eye and the edges of Ryou’s vision. The Ring called out to the ship, and though he didn’t have it on, Ryou could almost feel the hum and thrum of an answer. Something was going on here, hopefully a ghost unable to move on and in need of his help - though he didn’t reach for the Ring in his backpack to double-check.

With Kajiki standing next to him, it seemed an incredibly poor idea to try to get on the boat at all. Too dangerous – not for Ryou, but for his companion, who presumably wouldn’t even be able to see the ghosts trying to possess or haunt him. Maybe it would be better to just end the date here, then sneak back later and-

“Wow.” Echoing Ryou’s earlier thoughts, Kajiki grabbed a plank and leaned it against the boat. Ryou’s mind raced with excuses, and came up with _dog ate my boat_. Not good enough, not good enough. Think harder–!

“This has to be it, right? Sure smells like the real deal. Hey, do I see a pirate-?” Kajiki laughed that same way he always did, squinting into the shadows, and the flicker in the rigging seemed to shrink back. _Don’t scare it off!_ “Maybe there’s pirate treasure in it! That’d be pretty good for a first date.”

“No.” Ryou shook his head, wrinkled his nose, and tried desperately to stall. Kajiki wasn’t wrong about the smell, at least: the thing smelled vaguely of rotting wood and rotting something else. So long as he didn’t go below decks, it shouldn’t get too bad. “It’s a merchant ship, I think. It… uh, looks like the ones on my phone, anyway.”

“You’ve got boats on your _phone?_ How do they float?” Kajiki frowned.

“No, no. Google.” Think, think, think!

“Ah. I know that one,” said Kajiki, who clearly did not know that one. “Well, whatever. I give you, the Obra… Dim? Dinn. Obra Dinn!” Setting down his second plank, Kajiki bowed low, a movement that didn’t really suit him, and swept the tip of his harpoon to the makeshift ramp. “After you.”

Ryou smiled a tight smile, but he only extended one hand for Kajiki to hold. Another huge mistake – Kajiki just kissed his hand, then dramatically swept him right up and deposited him onto the deck of the ship. The _Obra Dinn,_ Ryou recalled from earlier. “You know, I always wanted to date somewhere those corporate company people weren’t gonna be involved. Those people have no respect for the sea.” He paused. “Hey, do you smell-”

Ryou gulped. “Right, I’m sure it’ll be just fine,” he managed, and something crawled through the rigging, flashing steely under the moonlight. He swallowed again. “It’s just like you said, nobody owns it.”

Kajiki shrugged at that, wrinkling his nose. “Yeah, you can’t trust big business…”

“Maybe secure the boat before it, um, drifts off or anything.” And before his companion could get too suspicious about the smell, Ryou took a few steps, trying to stay far away from Kajiki as possible. Maybe, if he could just keep his distance, his companion wouldn’t hear what was about to be heard. “Hello?” he asked nobody in particular, and Kajiki laughed behind him.

“Who’re you talking to?”

“I’m not sure myself.” Ryou didn’t dare look back, just in case something cool happened and he missed it for talking. “Just do up the ropes.”

“Aye-aye, sir!”

That wasn’t worth even a chuckle, though he made a noise out of courtesy all the same. Stepping away from the safety the ramp offered, Ryou moved further onto the deck, brushing fingers over where the rigging met the rail. Was that a noose, high above, or was that just his imagination? And that strange smell from over the side…

“Oh _no._ You shouldn’t be here, sir.”

The voice was soft, urgent. Gentle. And Ryou jumped anyway, because the voice most certainly shouldn’t be here, either. There had been nobody here before, after all, just odd flickerings.

“Sir, the Obra Dinn is not for you. Please, go back.” A little louder, now. Loud enough that Ryou could hear a flutter of breath; a distinct little whine, like a bow over strings. His Ring felt very warm in his backpack, so it had to be nearby. But _where_ was it? He turned in a slow circle, but it was little use without the Ring in hand.

 _Around your neck,_ something corrected. Ryou shook his head, and turned about some more.

“Go back!” the ghost demanded.

“I’m sorry,” he said, keeping it under his breath and hoping the wind might sweep it far from Kajiki’s ears. It wasn’t like him to talk to a ghost right away – generally best to figure out whether they were friendly or not first, before pulling out his Ring to get an actual look at them, but this one sounded so very concerned. He didn’t want to upset it further. “Are you friendly, or-?”

“You _must_ leave! Now, please. Sir, if you could…”

It had come closer. Had to be up ahead, for sure. Still, Ryou squinted into the darkness that was the middle of the deck, and came up with ‘somewhere between the creaky floor and the top of the mast’ for an answer. “I’m here to inspect, uh, your vessel?” he stalled, trying to think of something a nineteenth-century ghost might buy. Not being of that era himself, it was beyond tough. “Can I get your name and rank?”

“Third Mate’s Steward Roderick Andersen sir, reporting for duty! Please, call me Andersen! Sir, if I don’t get these to the captain soon, he’ll come looking. And he’ll find you.”

Ryou frowned at this. Well, that didn’t exactly sound _romantic._ All the more reason to not let Kajiki onto what he was doing. “Oh, I see. Will that be a problem?”

Andersen’s tone took on a kind of evasiveness here; a wily, whiny sing-song sort of thing as he stammered and stuttered his way through excuse after excuse. “I, well, I’m not sure. The Captain might not like the look of you, sir. No, not at all. There’s just, ah, something about your er, your hair- yes, your hair. It’s too long. And your eyes, they’re not a pleasing colour. It’s just the sort of human being you are, sir, that might be a tad bit problematic to him.”

“Yes, yes. But what will happen if this captain finds-“

“Oh _no!_ Sir! You mustn’t come here, either!”

Ryou glanced over his shoulder, to find Kajiki had come up the ramp and was pawing at the rigging, muttering something about a great investment opportunity and ‘tours’. The guy clearly hadn’t heard a word of things. “Er, don’t mind him.”

“Don’t mind who?” Kajiki asked.

“Don’t mind _that._ ” Ryou smiled, gently. Meant he wasn’t squinting into the darkness where he figured the ghost had to be; hopefully Kajiki wouldn’t look that way, either. “It’s just something you can show, but you can’t see. It’s hidden. It’s… a friend.”

Kajiki scratched his head.

“Friendship is something you can show but can’t see, right?” Ryou clarified, now pulling his Millennium Ring from his backpack. Kajiki’s stare remained blank, so he tried again: “Um. I’m trying to be romantic? This is a Ring.”

“Looks more like a necklace to me.”

“Uh, it’s a millennium one. Just don’t touch it, you’ll get cursed if you do.”I’m trying to be romantic. Just don’t touch it, you’ll get cursed if you do.”

Spontaneously combusted, cursed; same thing, really. Probably. Well, they were both life ruiners, and both pretty permanent. Ryou didn’t know too much about the Ring, besides the whole seeing ghosts thing and that _other_ thing it did, but his pet hamster had once gotten it looped around its neck… and, well, he no longer had a pet hamster. Not even ashes of one. Not even the table it had hopped up onto when it had done that. Just a weird charred spot in the carpet.

“Oh! Well, that’s very loving of you. I think?” Kajiki tilted his head, like a lost puppy, and finally turned towards Ryou. He came close- stopped. “Eh? What’s that?”

Unable to think up an excuse, Ryou shrugged his shoulders instead. Tried to keep his gaze on Kajiki, though with the Ring in hand he could already see things moving in his peripheral vision. Thing _s_ – more than one. A lot more than one. His heart picked up. “Er, just trying to be romantic?”

_Wait, no, I already used that one. I need a list or something-!_

Kajiki frowned, and pointed past Ryou. “Nah, I mean that.”

“What?”

And he whirled around to see, from the shadows of the rigging, a man slip into existence. A round man, short and freckled, quite young. Didn’t look much older than Ryou, though he probably weighed twice as much, and he wore a very much antiquated butler’s suit; the steward’s uniform, Ryou guessed. He carried a large stack of plates, which slid against each other as the ship rocked and his hands shook, threatening to smash to pieces on the deck. “Please… Please leave!”

Ryou went to make a soft response, but Kajiki _tensed_ , this great shudder that almost took the harpoon off his back and into his hand without him having to draw it. Being so close to the Ring must have had some consequences, Ryou supposed, because though he shouldn’t have been able to see at all, Kajiki’s gaze locked onto the ghost across the deck. His harpoon swung up in a downright threatening gesture. “Hey! What do you think you’re doing on my boat?”

_It’s your boat now?!?_

The ship rocked, side to side. Something heavy went _klunk_ in the deck below them, and though it was as innocent a noise as any, Ryou felt the bile rising in his throat. A plate slipped from the top of the pile, and the steward went right up on his toes in a bid to catch it atop the rest. He did, just barely, and it shattered into a million pieces. “At least be quiet, sir! _Please!_ The crew are asleep, but the captain-! I’m quite serious, he’s lost his mind.”

“Hey, speak up!” Kajiki demanded, brandishing his harpoon. “You’re an interloper! This is my date!” Then he whirled back on Ryou, and shouted, nose to nose: “You know this guy?!?”

“No, stay back. You don’t want to follow me in”, Ryou muttered, and carefully edged towards the new man. What had he called himself-? “Mr. Andersen, was it?”

Andersen fussed with his apron, then placed what was left of the plate-stack on the deck and fussed some more. Probably for the best, really. “I-it’s really dangerous to stay,” he whispered, coming closer. There was something very wrong with how the apron sunk into the middle of his otherwise generous stomach; a hole, perhaps, or something worse. “You don’t know how terrible it is. What they’ll do if they wake up-”

“I said, speak up!” Kajiki butted in. “Did you hear _any_ of tha…?” Then he blinked, Ryou’s instructions finally sinking in. “Oi! This is my date as well, you know! If you think I’m not gonna stay involved-”

Andersen’s gaze flicked up to the rigging. Ryou threw himself back into Kajiki, the Ring barely grazing the bigger guy’s neck.

And for a horrible moment, he thought about the hamster.


	3. Chapter Two

“Get down!”

Was it Ryou who screamed that? Was it Andersen? Who knew, but the knife came whistling down only a metre away, and buried itself hilt-deep in the deck. Ryou’s eyes went wide when he saw the cracks radiating from the silvery blade; that was a real knife, all right. A real deal that could really kill either one of them.

_What kind of ghosts are these-?_

“The hell was that-?” Kajiki snarled, his voice muffled under Ryou’s body. He poked his head out from under, and slowly twisted around to the left, his expression twisting when he saw what had barely missed them. “A knife? Where’d that come from?”

“Aw, don’t worry! There’s _much_ more where that came from. Ye’ll get to figure it out, maybe even before ye’ll get hurt.”

A new voice from the upper deck, followed by a round of clapping. Ryou craned his head up to look as two new men made their way towards them. Or at least – one walked over to the wheel of the ship, and the other, having apparently applauded himself for speaking, took to the rigging and was metres up in seconds, a new knife in his teeth.

Unlike Andersen, the pair were dressed beyond casually – right down to the bloodstained jacket and beanie. Definitely not butlers, or stewards, or whatever Andersen had said he was. It wasn’t important right now.

Kajiki tried to roll over to see the newcomers for himself, but Ryou was still on top of him and very much unwilling to make any sudden movements in getting off. He scrambled at the deck for his harpoon instead. “Now see, I- I heard that-!”

“Yes, yes. You did.” Ryou whispered back, and held the Ring as close as he could to Kajiki’s side so he could keep listening, hopefully, just for now, and hopefully not spontaneously combust. There would be time for _explaining_ once, say, they were off this very dangerous boat of ghosts that could apparently still pick up real knives and throw them at newcomers.

“Hey, Rod! You really thunk I’d sleep through _this?_ ” the applauding, climbing, knife-holding newcomer demanded. It wasn’t hard to see how he must have died; his forehead had quite the dent. Maybe he’d fallen off the rigging, since he seemed intent on climbing rather high up. “You absolute rotter. You can’t have ‘em all to yourself, you know. Now, I know Perrott likes his little magic knick-knacks, but you’ve gotta save a few for us!”

_Magic?_

Andersen set his jaw. “Walker.”

It was not said in a particularly friendly fashion.   
  
Walker grinned down at the steward, and climbed higher in the rigging until Ryou couldn’t see him from where he lay, but he was still too terrified to stand up again. His gaze moved to Walker’s companion, instead – a tall, lanky creature, wearing a beanie and the sort of fake smile most reserved for comedy show appearances. He held Ryou’s stare with something far colder than his smirk, but for now, Walker did all the talking:

“ _Lewis_ Walker, if you could. I’d rather be on first-name terms with our esteemed guests. Our new friends! And this – that handsome unit down there, with the impecc-imprick- fuck it, imperishable fashion sense, that would be Brennan. That’s Brennan! Just call him Brennan, he likes it that way.”

“Nice to meet you.” Brennan said at long last, and leaned on the wheel, but Ryou could see the tension in his back and his arms. He didn’t look to be armed, reaching up with long fingers only to scratch at his beanie, but he was relaxing the same way a rattlesnake relaxes itself, lowers itself right to the ground, before it strikes. Not a constant danger like Lewis, but a calm, calculated, instantaneous game over.

With a smile, no less.

“Nice? _Nice?!?_ Brennan, you’ve got to lay it on thicker for our guests! Use your _words!_ ” And every word Lewis said seemed to rile up the ship. The crew was, as Andersen feared, ‘waking up’; figures stirred to unlife in the rigging and in the shadows of the deck. “For instance, as they say!” Lewis went on. “If you wanna be a captain, you’ve gotta use big and imper- impor- fuck it, impotent words!”

Brennan snorted. “Put a sock in it.”

“Hypo-theoretically! If you fancy folk could maybe tell us about all you’ve got to trade, we’d be most fantastically and handsomely obliged! Let’s start with the category of, hmm…” Lewis drew a deep, rattling breath, and then he hissed. “ _Jewelry._ ” 

A short silence. Ryou could feel Kajiki tense under him, the world’s hardest mattress; his heart was absolutely pounding, and the muscles in his back seemed to have turned to stone. Maybe some of his circulation had been cut off by Ryou’s weight, but more likely he was getting ready for a fight he couldn’t possibly win. “Right, that’s enough. I’ve heard enough, you’d better let me up.”

Ah, definitely getting ready for a fight. Best not to get off his companion, for now. “We don’t have anything,” Ryou said instead, and tried to lie flat on Kajiki’s back, hiding his Ring from sight between his own shirt and Kajiki’s tunic.

Brennan’s wry chuckle was echoed across the boat by plenty of voices that weren’t his. “That’s your answer? I think I’d rather agree with your friend, personally.”

As whispers ebbed and flowed, Kajiki hauled himself up as though Ryou weighed nothing at all, and with a twirl similar to that dancelike sweep he’d used earlier in the evening, he took Ryou in his arms and pulled him close, standing back to back with him and readying his harpoon. Where he intended to throw it, Ryou had no clue, but at least there was an attempt. “Careful, they’re everywhere. It’s… it’s a real deal ghost ship, all right.”

Ryou had never heard such fear in the fisherman’s voice. He shivered against Kajiki’s back, and wished he could just explain. “Try not to worry.” Untrue, of course, but anything to keep Kajiki from trying to punch one of these wretched ghosts.

_Maybe…?_

Slowly, his hands raised a little just in case, Ryou stepped forwards, holding out the Ring as far from Kajiki as he could. Surely the ghost-sensing radius on this couldn’t be _that_ much. “They can’t do anything to us,” he went on. 

“I dunno, _can_ we?” Lewis cocked his head, like a bird might, but definitely one of those nasty scavenging ones. A seagull, perhaps. Andersen flinched at every snapping consonant. “You’re on our boat, you know. An’ yer not trading. That makes you boarders.”

And with that, he started to advance through the rigging, hand over hand. The tip of Kajiki’s harpoon followed him, like on some level he knew Lewis was there – but it trembled. “Wait, is he talking?” Kajiki mumbled, and tried to back into Ryou, rest his back against Ryou’s own. “Looks kind of bad.”

But Ryou shook his head, and shuffled forwards as much as he dared. “No, it’s fine. I promise.” Brennan’s eyes met his a second time, and he looked away.

Now Kajiki tilted his neck back as far as he could, scowling at Lewis. “Hey, louder! Say that louder! You threatening us or something?”

“Yeah, Walker. Is that a threat?” A new voice called down, light and cheerful, and Ryou craned his head to get a look. In the rigging, on a particularly low-hanging part maybe five metres above the ground, there now was a young man – barely Ryou’s age – balanced precariously with both feet on one rope and only one hand on the rope above his head. Next to him crouched a man tattooed from his head to his toes. “Golly, imagine if the captain heard about that. Lewis Walker, threatening others. I’m sure he just wouldn’t believe it at all.”

Brennan’s smirk had hardly left his face, but it had faded a little with the seriousness of the situation. Now it seemed to renew itself, his voice turning almost sing-song as he addressed his younger crewmate. “He’s just thinking out loud, is all. You ever try thinking, Nick? Might do you some good. Or did Perrott do something to you with one of those magical trinkets of his?”

Magical. There it was again. Maybe that was why these people could still throw regular knives like it was nothing. Ryou shuddered, trailing two fingers over his Millennium Item.

The tattooed man whispered something to Nick and Nick rocked back on the rigging until Ryou was sure he’d lose his balance. His gaze was trained, hawklike, on the Ring, and Ryou could have sworn he was _studying_ it. Just how much detail could he see from his bird’s eye perch? Could he tell it was solid gold from where he was? Five or so metres up wasn’t a whole lot, after all. He hastened to put the Ring behind his back, but Nick just hopped around in the rigging, getting himself a good view in seconds. Ryou soon gave up and let his Ring-hand drop to his side instead.

“He’s, he’s saying you- what he’s saying is, you ought to keep to your own business. And you too, Walker!” Andersen had no hope of getting anywhere near Lewis, but he tried to puff himself up a little bit, tried to get himself in front of Brennan. Brennan let him do it, but he sneered. The whispering turned to sniggering. “I mean it! Y-y-y-you-you keep to your own business, Brennan- or, or I’ll – you’ll b-b-be in for it, I’ll get Mr. Perrott and the captain and-” 

Something flashed in Brennan’s eyes, and he drew himself up and away from the ship’s wheel. Andersen cringed back, stopping dead in his speech. As Brennan regarded him, still smiling, hands in his pockets, the steward backed up, one step, two, three. He thought about it, four. Brennan tilted his head slightly, and that was five.

Honestly, it was a bit like when a rattlesnake eyed off a mouse on one of those nature documentaries. There was Andersen, too terrified to run but just cowardly enough to make his fear known, and Brennan simply gave his warning in that stare, and waited for his moment. And of course, there was the British commentary. In this case, Lewis hooted from the rigging. “Oh, you’re in for a treat now. Get ‘im, Brennan! Show these boarders how you can kill with just one blow!”

“I-I-I’m already _dead!_ ” Andersen squeaked, but that placid smile hardly moved from Brennan’s face.

Kajiki might not have been able to hear the conversation, but he almost certainly had some sixth sense, because he turned, now facing Ryou’s back in order to point the harpoon Brennan’s way, bringing the weapon over Ryou’s shoulder. If he couldn’t see Brennan, he must have been awfully lucky, since he jabbed the harpoon right at Brennan’s neck; a thin line opened up right there, opened into a slit that seemed to sever an artery. Maybe more than one. Kajiki scowled, putting up a stoic front. “You can stay right there.”

Brennan, for his part, didn’t so much as flinch. He pushed his neck back together, flicked his gaze away from Andersen, looked at the harpoon, then went back to staring at Andersen. Kajiki shook his head. “Tell him to stay right there. In case he can’t hear.”  
  
“That’s more like it!” Lewis grinned. “I smell a deal. Let’s listen to your buddy, and let’s say… We’ll stay right here an’ nobody gets hurt, _if-?_ ” 

While Kajiki’s move was probably well meant, Ryou now felt a little like a hostage, or maybe a human shield. Wow, this little attempt to explore a ghost ship was going just _swell,_ pun fully intended.

“Hey,” he began. “Maybe I did come to trade- in a way? I came here to help you guys out. You see, I was having dreams about this boat. The…” He paused, trying to remember. “Obra Dinn, was it?”

“You mean you _knew?_ ” Ryou could feel Kajiki’s stare boring into the back of his neck. He swallowed.

“Might’ve.”

Lewis cackled from on up high, reminding them both he was still there and still had one knife to toss. “Well, that’s interesting. Bet you wanna murder him for that. However! Less with the personal drama, more with the treasure itiner- intern- fuck it, list! Starting with you!” He pointed his knife down at Ryou, right at the hand that clutched the Ring. Ryou automatically brought it up to his chest, which resulted in the knife swaying in the direction of his vitals. “And _that!_ ”

More men slunk into view up on the rigging, nestled between Lewis, Nick, and the tattooed man, but they only watched and whispered. Brennan looked from Lewis to Nick to Andersen to Kajiki, then tilted his head, stared right into Ryou’s eyes, and placed one foot on the stairs leading down to the main deck. Andersen made a noise a bit like a squeaky dog toy getting stomped on, and Brennan’s smile vanished altogether.

“Whoops. Guess I didn’t stay back.”


	4. Chapter Three

“I saw that!” Andersen wailed. “You just leave them alone, and – and I already said, you don’t come any closer! Stop it!”

For a moment Brennan seemed to hesitate, his face cold. Calculating. Ryou shuddered – Brennan caught the motion, grinned, and took a step down towards them. “Oh, I’m sorry, Mr Andersen, _sir_.” Another step. “Wouldn’t wanna upset your lord and master, Mister Magical Perro-“

“What the blazers is going on?!?”

A man in an admiral’s hat dashed out of the cabin right below where Brennan stood – the captain’s cabin, Ryou guessed – and fired two warning shots straight into Brennan’s face. They went right through, but left a trail of ghostly gibs behind them. Brennan fell back onto the stairs, and lay rather still.

Kajiki hissed against Ryou, his harpoon jerking towards the newcomer in a kind of startled snarl. Without thinking, Ryou grabbed the weapon just below the tip. “Don’t!” Then, with an effort, he pushed downward. _“Don’t.”_

The captain, if it was him, turned where he stood, but only to look at the person he had just shot. He was an older man, with a gloriously extravagant uniform (at _least_ two tops involved and a jacket to boot), a grizzled face and incredibly thick eyebrows; to Ryou, they vaguely resembled two furry monsters about to have a duel. At present, they wiggled in disapproval, and Ryou would be trying not to laugh if not for the whole gun thing.

“Brennan. Again?” The hat-eyebrow-gun man scowled. Perhaps he knew what Ryou was thinking. “That’ll be the fourth time. Waste of good shot.”

His gaze slid towards Ryou and Kajiki, then over the harpoon they both held, and finally settled on the Ring in Ryou’s hand. It would have been a question, but the man decided to start reloading his pistol. Seemed he had already made up his mind on the answer. 

“Actually, Walker’s been doing threats again,” Nick commented. “Does ‘em like they’re pints, Cap’n.”

“That’s right, sir!” Andersen whined. Now the captain was here and marching towards the center of the action, he skittered from where he’d stood in front of Brennan, giving everyone a good look at the ghostly corpse. “You – you’d better teach him a lesson. Like you did Brennan.”

“Like you can’t yourself?” Lewis asked.

Nick only sighed, and rocked back on the rigging once again.

The captain grunted, non-committal, and slid a new bullet into the chamber. Ryou gritted his teeth, but he held Kajiki’s harpoon down, held the Ring to Kajiki’s ear, and hoped he could hear something of what was going on. One wrong move now, and they’d be finding out if those ghostly bullets were the real deal, too.

Or he could just go up in flames, Ryou remembered far too late, and the Ring felt warm, warming – it was going to get hot, it was going to _go_ up – the hamster! And he pulled back with a mumbled apology, though he soon brought the Ring close again.

Kajiki, good sport that he was, flinched only a little at having a piece of warm metal just about jammed into his ear. “The hell’re you doing?”

Ryou shook his head, and waited.

“Did you” – and here the captain paused a moment, lining himself up so he stood right under Lewis “-as Nicholas claims, ‘do threats’?”

“I’ve done a lot,” Lewis grinned, without a shred of modesty. “But were just trying to do a spot of trading with these fine fellows. We haven’t done a lot of trading of late, see, so Brennan was getting pretty persuasive and, well, I don’t know about _threats_ but-”

The captain’s gun went off a third time, and though he pointed it straight up, he just missed Lewis’s shoulder. Ryou’s wannabe tormentor yelped and darted away, across the boat in mere seconds, and perched high on the other mast. There he hunkered down, sulking with his knife in hand, or at least Ryou figured it was in hand. Could’ve been his teeth. Only the occasional glint was visible in the shadows of the rigging.

“Well done, Mr. Witterel!” Andersen cheered, though he didn’t move towards the captain. Perhaps he didn’t dare. “You’re r-really the best, to save these poor people like this and such. I was worried, but, no, I wasn’t worried, forget I said anything. ”

Kajiki grinned, apparently understanding what had just happened. So Ryou didn’t need to jam the Ring in his ear after all, like he really needed further proof of that. Still, good to know. “Great, he’s on our side!”

“A waste of shot,” the captain spat. “Andersen, back on duty. Whatever it was you were doing, before... this.” Now he pointed the gun squarely at Kajiki’s face, frowning up at the rigging. “Maba, you deal with Brennan. Nicholas, with me.” 

“Aw. Guess he’s not.” Kajiki shook his harpoon gently, trying to free it from Ryou’s grip. Because sure, he’d be just about dumb enough to try throwing a harpoon at a man with a gun. He seemed to understand the purpose of the Ring, however; didn’t try to move away from where Ryou was holding it near his head (but not touching, of course!), which in turn hampered his efforts to get the harpoon free. “Hey, can you at least let me-”

“Shhhh.”

“Don’t shhhh me. He might shoot us ne-”

“Not if you shut up, he won’t”, Nick chirped. But he ran two fingers across his neck, and Kajiki’s eyes went very wide.

Andersen scurried away, then remembered his plates and came back for them, then bumped into the captain, apologized profusely, and eventually rattled down the hatch to the lower decks of the ship, but Ryou wasn’t paying much attention. The tattooed man who had been with Nick was on the move now, and he was quite a sight to behold. He was as quick as Lewis, taking the ropes two at a time, which was impressive since – well, something horrifying must have happened to him, because he was almost in two halves. Plenty of missing stuff in between, and plenty of things trying to bridge the gap, bits of skin and tattoo, chunks of guts and sinew. Didn’t seem to bother the guy at all, though. Hell, he didn’t even bother with climbing the last two meters to the ground.

Instead, he dropped right out of the rigging and landed hard at the side of the fresh ghost-corpse, the head of which lay almost level with the wheel. Crouching low, he prodded at Brennan’s cheek, prompting a groan from the gun-toting captain. “Check his pulse, Maba! His _pulse!_ ”

“Eh?” The tattooed man – Maba, Ryou presumed, looked over at the captain. “Not surgeon. Not surgeon’s friend. How do?”

“He says he’s not a surgeon,” Nick called down, then added after a thought: “So he doesn’t know how, sir.”

“Well, _tell_ him how, before he joins Brennan!” the captain shouted, waving his pistol about. Nick scurried back and forth in the rigging, staying out of the line of fire, before the captain became bored enough to turn his weapon onto Ryou’s chest instead. “Don’t know how the blazers he understands anything on this ship!”

Going off Maba’s expression as he looked away from the captain, Ryou guessed he’d understood at least some of that. If the captain noticed, he pretended not to. “I said–just tell him, blast it!”

Nick rattled off several lines in some language Ryou didn’t know. Slowly, ceremonially, Maba reached out, then thought about it, and thought again, rocking back on his toes like he was still in the rigging. Then he called back to Nick, who seemed to have to think harder about his answers. Back and forth they went, but only Nick hesitated, and only Nick seemed to stumble and have to repeat things.

After a few rounds of this, Maba pulled a sword seemingly from nowhere, though his tone remained curious and light. He continued to chatter in his odd lilting tongue while he stuck the weapon up Brennan’s nose.

Thankfully, Brennan sat up before he could get too far with this unusual approach to medicine. Maba dodged a very swift uppercut, rolling head over heels with a shout of alarm. The sword clattered to the deck, and again Ryou could feel he was having to force Kajiki’s hand away from his harpoon. “Cripes, Maba! My pulse, in my nose? Where’s a good surgeon when you need one?” the seaman wailed, thrashing about on the deck. Only when he was quite sure nobody was still in swording range of his nose did he stop, and his hand flew to his mouth. “Witterel, you asshole! You put _holes_ in my lip!”

The captain sniffed. “Captain Witterel to you.”

“Asshole,” Brennan repeated, venom twisting his petulance into something more.

Maba laughed uproariously, and his tattoos shook about. It kind of reminded Ryou of Kajiki, in a way; both guys were big, and both definitely had a distaste for shirts, though at least he’d convinced Kajiki to wear his tunic this time round, and at least Kajiki was a whole person. “Asshole!”

“Don’t repeat that.” Nick sniffed. “Not a good word.” Then he said something in that other language – likely a repeat of what he had just said. Maba just laughed, and pointed to Brennan, and then Nick laughed too, and it wasn’t too hard to work out what they were joking about, even if Ryou didn’t know the language. Brennan certainly seemed to know, because he _snarled._

Witterel put both hands behind his back, then seemed to remember he still had a gun, and resumed pointing that; this time taking aim at Kajiki, who snorted and tried to get at his harpoon again. Ryou wondered if ghost arms ever got sore – his own sure were. The Ring was solid – solid gold, solid something else, it didn’t matter, it was _solid_ , and Kajiki was tall enough that holding it up to his ear really was holding it _up._

“Nice to have you with us, Brennan. You, Maba, with me– Nicholas! I said get down from there, didn’t I? Do you think right now is an appropriate time to be _taking your time?!?_ ”

Nick hopped to it, but he seemed to be having a little bit of trouble coming down. Or, well, rather a lot of trouble. To be frank, his downwards climbing was less like Lewis’ or Maba’s and more resembled a baby monkey that had recently lost its mother in a traumatic lorry accident and had been drinking heavily to get over its sorrows. He swayed heavily with the lean of the ship, once even losing his grip on the netting. “There’s plenty of time, sir. As they say-! Er, one foot at a time.”

Nick’s one foot at a time then went right into a knot of the rigging. Maba sprang to help him, but it was too late to stop Nick from going upside down with a hell of a yell. “Crab!”

“Of all the words he could’ve picked,” Kajiki began, because of course he had to comment – but then Witterel straightened himself up and turned his attention on them, silencing the fisherman with his mere presence. Smoothing down his collar, his face turning from stormy to neutral, the captain provided a far more dignified alternative to the show going on behind him.

Also, he had the gun. Ryou was far more focused on that than whatever Maba and Nick were doing.

“They’re boarders, you know,” Brennan murmured, getting to his feet behind Witterel. The two new holes in his face didn’t seem to bother him anymore. “Trouble. I’d detain them if it were my boat. Doesn’t his necklace make you think of that thing?”

“I can question them quite well myself, thankyou.” Up close, the captain looked even older, his eyebrows somehow even more _intense_ , the two furry dueling monsters now framed by an epic storm that was the wrinkles in his brow. Ryou found himself on the verge of laughter again, so hastily tried to guess what had made the man’s face shift like that. Maybe it had something to do with the ship – between the rigging overhead and the tall masts behind, it certainly cast some intense shadows.

Despite his efforts to appear calm, Witterel was still frowning a little. Fed up, maybe. Tired, definitely. Perhaps he thought himself the lone staff member in this veritable asylum of incompetence, what with his supreme ranking of captain and all.

Ryou knew that feeling well, and might have even felt bad for him, but he _did_ have a gun pointed at them still.

“You.” The captain addressed Kajiki first, for whatever reason. Perhaps because of the whole harpoon thing. “Identify yourself.”

“Me? I’m Ryota Kajiki.” Kajiki jerked a thumb towards himself, then tried to free his weapon again, twisting Ryou’s wrist a little with his efforts. Ryou hung on as best he could with one hand. “I go fishing all the time. They call me the duelist of the sea! I could show you if– _will you let go already?!?_ ”

Ryou continued to hold onto the harpoon. Witterel regarded him a moment, let Ryou struggle before he held up a hand and asked the obvious: “Duellist? You mean– one who duels?”

“Well, what he _means_ is–”

“Quiet.” The captain took a step towards Kajiki, though he kept his pistol levelled. “One who duels… doesn’t sound like much of an occupation. Elaborate.”

“It’s duelist, actually,” Kajiki replied, because of course he would say that. Ryou hastily removed his Ring from the guy’s ear.

“I- I can answer?”

Brennan smirked. “I could go get Paul, sir. Paul’s just great at duels, isn’t he? I bet he’d totally teach these two a lesson, right?”

“I don’t want to hear any questions from you,” Witterel told him. “So kindly shut up. _As I said._ ”

But he didn’t try shooting the seaman again. Brennan seemed to have predicted this, because he didn’t so much as move from his position over the captain’s shoulder, and certainly didn’t stop with the smirking.

Witterel turned to Ryou, and his expression took on a more tired look to it. He had been tired before, of course, but now there was little menace left in his voice. “And I suppose you also duel for a living?” 

Well, he didn’t. But he was pretty sure the crew of a nineteenth–century sailing boat would never have heard of Duel Monsters, so maybe he should clarify that instead. Or maybe he should lie and say yes, he duelled. He had, once or twice. Did that make him a duelist, or a duellist? Just how were you supposed to spell that, anyway?

Nick fell flat on his face behind the captain, who leaned forwards. “Yes or no?”

He couldn’t possibly be alive, but Ryou could feel the heat of his breath and smell the tobacco. The Ring seemed to almost burn in his hand, but he couldn’t drop it either, his fingers tightening around it until there was no feeling in them from the knuckles down. His vision tunnelled. What was going on?

The captain moved back a little, but only to point his gun squarely at Ryou. His voice was suddenly raw, frustrated. “Loosen your tongue, lest I put holes in _your_ face! Did you not see what happened to Brennan?”

It was a different kind of intimidation to what Lewis and Brennan had traded in, for sure – honest and upfront about the potential punishment – but it was no less intimidating. Ryou shuddered and almost lost his grip on the harpoon. “Okay, okay, ah, okay, not quite. What was the question?”

The captain simply waited, until Kajiki said, very softly: “ _Are_ you a duelist? I don’t honestly remember.” He tilted his head a little. “I mean, I thought I saw someone like you in Battle City. Was that you?”

Ryou nudged him into quiet again, pressing his ankle up against Kajiki’s leg until he got the message, or at least Ryou felt he might fall over if he kept trying to do it. Kajiki didn’t really react, but at least he let his date speak. “Not quite. I ah, play other games. You see, Mr. Captain – or is that sir?”

“It’s _captain_ ,” Brennan supplied, and didn’t so much as flinch when Witterel kicked him in the shins. A small parallel, there.

“Yes, captain. Er, anyway. See, when we say duel, we mean we’re playing a game.” There, a simple explanation. Even these thoroughly antiquated souls should get it.

The captain frowned again, clearly not getting it. “Duels are a game to you? That’s…”

“ _Dis_ respectful!” Brennan made a large, sweeping gesture, maybe trying to indicate the sheer magnitude of the word, maybe trying to knock off the captain’s hat.

Witterel shook his head, ducking low on instinct. “Disturbing. And I thought I told you to be quiet.”

“You told me not to ask questions!” Brennan pointed out. “It’s just one word. Disre _spect_ ful! No, dis _re_ spectful. No–”

“I believe I shot you in the face. Twice.” The way the captain said it, it came out as one weirdly apologetic threat. “You might not want to say anything more. ”

“Say, where’d you get that necklace?” Nick blurted out all of a sudden. He hadn’t even gotten up, but had apparently just been lying on his face on the deck this whole time. Trying to study the Ring, maybe. Whatever the reason, only now did Maba help him up. “More cursed treasure, is it? From that cursed chest?”

“How come _he’s_ allowed to ask stuff?” Brennan asked, and somehow didn’t get shot for his troubles. Kajiki shrugged, and for a moment, the two almost seemed to exchange smiles. It was very quick, though; Ryou couldn’t really be sure.

_You can see them, Kajiki?_

Curious. Very, very curious.

“Is it a necklace?” Witterel squinted at the thing, barely a golden glint in Ryou’s closed hand. After a moment’s inspection, he gave up. “Hand it over, boy.”

Now that he absolutely couldn’t do. Not even with a gun pointed at him. The boat would probably get blown to bits if he did, never mind himself and Kajiki. “No.”

“It’ll curse you if you touch it”, Kajiki added unhelpfully. “But it’s pretty romantic.”

“I am the captain of this ship. And I’m giving an _order._ ” Witterel’s eyebrows finally met, like two giant fuzzy caterpillars having their very own date. Or maybe it was the two furry monster duelists from earlier? That would be a plot twist. Ryou would have laughed, but again there was a gun pointed at his head. 

Why was there always a gun to ruin the eyebrow moments?


	5. Chapter Four

“I’m sorry,” Ryou whimpered instead, his voice strained with what he hoped would be registered as fear and not a massive, held–back snigger fit. “I–if you take it, bad things will happen.”

“Cursed!” Nick proclaimed. “That’s what he’s saying, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, but is it ours?” Brennan pointed out. “Not a question, it’s reh… retro… rehtoryk… eh, one of Lewis’s words.”

“Fuck it,” added Maba, and though he got the pronunciation all wrong, not even Nick seemed to have the heart to correct him.

In fact, Brennan nodded wisely. It was odd to see him agreeing with someone for once, but Ryou supposed he had to be friendly with at least some of the crew. “Yeah, he’d say that. ‘Fuck it, word’.”

Pleased with his contribution, Maba began to hum, a strange tune Ryou didn’t know. It almost drowned out the growls of the very angry captain.

Then again, Witterel absolutely _snarled_. His eyebrows shook, like the furry duelling monsters had gotten into an earthquake mid–duel. Ryou swallowed. “You had better give that here, if it’s ours. Or you will regret it.”

“Yours?” Instinctively, Ryou drew his Ring towards his chest, then remembered he couldn’t do that or Kajiki wouldn’t be able to hear anything. But was it really a good idea to keep letting him hear all this? Maybe not. He paused, the precious treasure somewhere between himself and Kajiki’s ear. “I’m sorry, but it’s mine.”

“Hey,” said Nick, stepping out from behind his superior. “Didn’t you win it in one of those duels you do? The games?” His voice turned smug. “Think that means we can ‘duel’ you for it.”

That cunning smile crossed Brennan’s face all over again, but he said nothing. Somehow, that felt even more terrifying than any threat he could have come out with.

“I don’t think you can do that”, Ryou offered.

“You’ll give me that necklace, before I pluck it from your dead corpse”, said Witterel, very seriously. His eyebrows slunk low, just about covering his eyes, and Ryou’s chest fluttered in barely–held–back giggles.

Kajiki, maybe thinking this was shivering in fear, put his hand on Ryou’s shoulder, which didn’t help at all. “Hey, what’s he on about? Must be bad.” And he crouched low, trying to get his ear to the Ring again.

“There! There they are! Right there, sir. Oh, Captain Witterel, mister – sir. Would you like some water?”

Back came Andersen, with two more men in tow, and Witterel’s eyebrows _flew right up_ and Ryou went stumbling back into Kajiki’s face with a nervous scream that was part laughter and part raw fear.

“Andersen! What the blazers is _this?!?_ ” 

Gone was the scared ghost, though he was still as round and freckled as before. There was a jaunt in Andersen’s step now, one that rattled the plates he carried in a most annoying fashion. He seemed to do it on purpose, especially as he passed Brennan, who was looking pale even by ghost standards. “Just doing my job, sir. Excuse me, my duty. Do you mind drinking out of a plate? I’m afraid I– I didn’t quite think–”

One of the newcomers swept forwards, interrupting Andersen’s stammer like a hyena interrupting a staggering gazelle, if a hyena was man–shaped and happened to have a Scottish accent. “Quiet, Andersen. Captain, lower your weapon. If you would.” He coughed. “Or do you really think two boys can put up a fight against all of us?” 

“Try me,” said Kajiki, getting up with harpoon in hand, but he didn’t bother striking a fighting pose. Maybe his arm hurt as much as Ryou’s did after that whole ordeal.

“You’re interrupting the questioning,” the captain complained, but he complied. “What in tarnation do you want, Hoscut?” He even holstered his pistol, and while Ryou didn’t miss how Kajiki’s harpoon arm raised just a little at the thought he might get a hit in, he opted to ignore it.

The other man rolled his eyes, apparently a thing that was still fashionable back in the eighteen-hundreds. “Och, where’s your manners? Let the boy get up first.”

Releasing a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding throughout the shouting session (apparently also known as ‘questioning’), Ryou nodded to the new man, who nodded back. Hoscut couldn’t be much older than Maba, but he was wearing an admiral’s hat just like Witterel’s – though he wore it the _other_ way, with the long and pointy bits facing forwards and back. Ryou wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, but the man’s uniform was very similar, so he assumed this was… some other captain, or something like that. Maybe there was another boat?

Or hell, maybe Kajiki was right about the pirate treasure thing and Hoscut was a pirate captain. Or Witterel was. Anything could make sense at this point.

“Make him hurry up, then!” His temper flaring to life once more, Witterel seemed to be just short of punting Ryou across the deck with one boot.

Except suddenly Kajiki was in front of Ryou, and with that sharp spear in hand, the tables were almost turned. “You wanna repeat that?” He gestured to the captain with the harpoon, but at least had enough sense to finish the motion with the weapon pointing down at his side. “And make sure you speak up this time!”

“He said they’re not going to shoot us,” Ryou supplied, crawling to his feet. He kept the Ring close to him, though; no need to let Kajiki hear anything inflammatory.

“I said no such thing,” Witterel growled. “Best tell your friend he’s outnumbered five to one. Six to one, if Brennan’s on my side.”

Ryou counted on his fingers. Witterel, Hoscut, Maba, Nick, Andersen, and… and the other man with Hoscut made six. Brennan made seven. Either the captain was leaving someone out on purpose, or he was just bad with numbers, and Ryou didn’t want to ask either way. “Er, he says they’re going to let us go,” he translated instead. Witterel definitely didn’t like that, but he seemed content to simmer.

“Enough of this charade.” Hoscut wiped at his brow with a handkerchief. What ghosts could possibly wipe off, Ryou honestly had no idea; maybe it was another habit of his past life. “What’s all this about a treasure? Can any of you tell me?”

“They stole our treasure,” Brennan said, though he put the captain between himself and Hoscut when he said it. “And now they’ve got it. Look at it, it’s all gold just like ours!”

And he reached for the captain’s gun, still in its holster. Ryou went to say something, but Kajiki lunged, twisted around the captain, and– Brennan dodged out of range of the spear, lashed out with an elbow but found he’d put himself out of range as well. The two strafed around each other, each clearly unsure of what to do but both of them very much determined to win. 

“Stop!”

Naturally, neither of them seemed keen on listening to Witterel, even if he _was_ the captain. He decided to do the next most sensible thing, drawing his pistol and preparing another ‘warning’ shot, but Hoscut made an almost dismissive gesture, a flicking of his fingers, and he stopped. “Go on, laddies.” He nodded curtly to Maba and Nick, currently doing nothing much on deck. “Fighting’s not about to help either of them.”

Maba and Nick seemed to take their sweet time coming to Brennan’s aid. They did, of course, Nick slouching in the direction of the brawl, calling a few foreign directions to Maba as he did so they could flank, but overall their approach was cautious at best, downright lazy at worst. Strafing on top of more strafing, really; both seemed genuinely curious about the outcome of the Kajiki vs Brennan match, and that couldn’t be a good thing.

“Useless!” Witterel exclaimed, and he stormed into the fight with his gun blazing, leaving Ryou relatively alone. Just himself, Hoscut, Andersen, and the other man who had come with Hoscut. The latter had his back to Ryou, staring off to sea with both hands on the rail. Andersen had startled with the fight, and was frantically picking up bits of plate off the deck.

“Now, you know what I’m interested in,” Hoscut said. “I don’t like to repeat myself.”

“The treasure.” Ryou held up the necklace, letting its reflections shimmer in the moonlight. The golden points swayed a little with the ship. “Brennan was talking about this, I think. But it’s mine.”

Hoscut glanced at Ryou’s Ring, but it was no more than that. A simple glance. Almost dismissive, really. He seemed to consider Kajiki and his harpoon far more worthy of looking at, which was fair enough given the utter spectacle he was creating. Nick had leaped onto his back, and Maba had an ankle, but he’d still managed to club Brennan out cold with the handle of the harpoon and was spinning in place, warding off the captain for the moment.

“Can’t say I recognize it,” Hoscut admitted, looking back at Ryou. “though it’s peculiar for such a wee lad to have such a big necklace.” And again, his attention was drawn away, to the sizeable fight. “Where’d you get it, laddie? Stole it off a Spanish king?”

“I– I didn’t steal it,” Ryou said, but his voice was hoarse. “My father gave it to me.”

Hoscut narrowed his eyes here, suddenly seemed to focus on Ryou. “All treasure was once someone else’s, laddie. Well, come on, who’d _he_ steal it off?”

The man’s friend came to the rescue, sort of. “I will deal with this. You deal with the other one.” His voice was gentle – fatherly, maybe – and he looked at Ryou with the same kind of forgiving, safe stare a parent might give their child. “You won’t come to any harm. I just need to know a few things about this treasure of yours.”

“Of course,” Hoscut snapped. “I suppose it’s your _speciality._ ”

Hoscut’s voice seemed to carry some kind of accusation with it. Maybe Ryou was only imagining that, though, because the other man shrugged. “I have experience.”

And Hoscut sneered, but he turned on his heel and strode towards the brawl. The stranger clapped his hands, and Andersen came scurrying back with a lot of half–plates. “If you could prepare the cabin?”

Andersen bowed low. “O–of course! Sir, Mr. Perrott, _sir._ ”

Ryou blinked, having heard that name before, but he couldn’t quite place the _where._ Somewhere on the ship, definitely. Had Nick said it?

The man smiled, very broadly, and Ryou could feel himself warming to him already. “But of course, you may call me Martin. Do you have a name, boy?”

It was the first time anyone on this damn boat had asked his name. Ryou blinked, then swallowed, and wondered if he should really tell the truth, but Martin did make him feel comfortable, like he wouldn’t do anything bad with it. “Ryou Bakura, sir.”

“Martin,” the man reminded him.

He wore no hat, though his uniform was just as posh as the captain’s and that of his companion’s, so maybe he was another captain. He certainly looked the part, one eye made of glass and a great, thick pirate–style grey beard. If there was a word to describe him, Ryou decided, it would have to be _buccaneer_ – a nice, long word, a bit elegant even, but still full of adventure on the high seas.

Anyway, he looked friendly enough, and not in a sneaky Brennan sort of way. “Shall we go to my cabin?” he asked. “Someone’s been into my liqueur again, but I’m sure there’s something.”

A great crash caught Ryou’s attention instead; Kajiki had finally been subdued, but about half the ropes had come down on him in the process. Thrown clear of the chaos, Nick landed lightly on his feet and came bounding up, Maba at heels as usual. Witterel and Hoscut were left to deal with Kajiki, who remained stoically silent but struggled hard anyway.

“What the blazers were you thinking?!?” Witterel roared. Kajiki said nothing, so Witterel turned to Ryou and just about screamed: _“Tell him what I said!”_

Before Ryou could, Nick was in his face. “Mr. Perrott! Boy, have I got a story for you.”

“One moment.” A gentle smile pulled at Martin’s lip. “Ryou Bakura, could you please ask your… companion what he was doing?”

What a nice way of phrasing it that was. “Why’d you attack them?”

“He was trying to get the gun!” Kajiki seemed to have more to say, but since he chose to jab his harpoon at Brennan at that particular moment, he didn’t get to finish on account of Hoscut kicking him in the side.

“Have you never heard of reasonable force, laddie?!? A _harpoon!_ Why, had you gotten him with it, I’d have had you executed by the Crown!” He sounded rather vindicated; Ryou didn’t dare interrupt. “Use your words before your weapons! Have you never heard of a word before?”

“Did you know,” Nick butted in, nice and loud so everyone could hear it, “that Lewis did threats?”

Hoscut’s head snapped towards where Lewis was still sulking. “ _Did_ he.”

And while he was distracted, Nick whispered to Perrott, and Perrott suddenly regarded Ryou with not warmth, but a kind of clinical curiosity.

"I think you had best come with me."


End file.
